There’s new “technology on tap” for those hand washers who get annoyed by the trail of water droplets that inevitably ends up on the floor, from sink to towel rack.

The Dyson Airblade Tap, unveiled Monday in New York City, allows a person to wash and dry their hands at the sink, putting an end to wet, slippery floors.

The faucet resembles a normal tap with a branch coming out of each side. Infrared sensors release water for washing, and then kick-start a little motor to send unheated filtered air sheets flowing out of the branches at a speed of 675 kilometres per hour. Hands are dry in 14 seconds.

“Using laser cutting techniques to manipulate marine grade steel, Dyson engineers have created an intuitive, high performance tap,” says renowned British inventor James Dyson, who founded the Dyson company.

“Two branches channel high velocity air to literally scrape water from hands and into the sink, not the floor,” he says in a media release.

The inventor is best known for creating a bagless vacuum cleaner, which also bears his name. He’s also invented bladeless fans and the Airblade hand dryer, which is a silver-coloured dryer — often seen in high-traffic public washrooms — with an opening for a person to insert their hands.

His most recent invention is powered by the Dyson digital motor V4, which is one of the world’s smallest and fully integrated 1400W motors. It can accelerate from 0 to 92,000 rpm in less than 0.7 seconds.

The company says the new tap is able to dry 15 pairs of hands for the price of a single paper towel and costs about $48 a year to run.

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